A Pandaren monk from the upcoming World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria. Picture: Image courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment Source: Supplied

Concept art of one of Mists of Pandaria's Pandaren warriors. Picture: Courtesy of Blizzard Source: Supplied

WORLD of Warcraft, the world's most popular online game, is about to get a little bigger, and a little furrier.

The game, which allows players to explore and fight in one of the two warring factions of the fantasy world of Azeroth, has over 9.1 million subscribers, and has had several expansions, the fourth of which, World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, is launched today.

The expansion allows players to journey to a new continent, Pandaria, as well as step into the shoes of a new race of martial-art practicing panda warriors called Pandaren.

In the past, World of Warcraft expansions have focused on major characters in the Warcraft universe, and the interactions between major heroes.

But Ian Hazzikostas, Mists of Pandaria’s lead encounter designer, says that this time the team were working from a blank slate.

“The challenge of this expansion, which was also a great opportunity, was to create an entire world really that hadn't necessarily been seen specifically defined in earlier Warcraft lore.”

“There really was a lot that was set in stone that we couldn't change.”

“This time around we had the challenge of a blank slate, but also the creative opportunity and freedom of a blank slate.”

“Our artists, our level designers, our quest team has woven an entire mythology that populates this world, and it's a really exciting place that we're looking forward to seeing our players jump into.”

A screenshot of from Mists of Pandaria. Picture: Courtesy of BlizzardSource: Supplied

And Ian says that unlike the last few expansions, Mists of Pandaria is a return to the roots of World of Warcraft.

“We wanted to get back to the themes of exploration and discovery against the backdrop of conflict between [the game's two factions] the Horde and the Alliance.”

"If you look at the recent expansions, we had a single existential threat to the world, that in many cases was causing the Alliance and the Horde to actually team up and work against it. “

“But if you think back to classic World of Warcraft in 2004, there was no big villain on the box.”

“Players were stepping into the world and being left to their own devices to explore it and uncover secrets, with a clear rivalry between the Horde and the Alliance.”

After seven years, World of Warcraft has amassed quite a diverse group of gamers. So how does the team keep everyone happy?

“They say that it's impossible to please everybody all the time but that's really what we try to do.

“We try to deliver as broad an experience as possible, so that players of all types, and all play styles and all preferences can find something in the game that they can really latch on to, and play the game in their way.”

“The audience has grown and evolved and the people who started playing in 2004 are in different places in their lives.”

A screenshot of from Mists of Pandaria. Picture: Courtesy of BlizzardSource: Supplied

“The hardcore player from 2005 may now have a family and kids, and isn't likely to be playing dozens of hours and pushing hardcore heroic content like they once did, but they still love the game.”

“And of course there's a new generation that's come in to take their place, and that's how it always works.”

Ian’s job is to lead the team that develops one of the most important aspects of the World of Warcraft experience: the dungeons and raids. He tells us just what goes into building a fun encounter.

“At the very beginning we have the basic idea of what the dungeon is going, or what the raid is going to be, who the inhabitants of that raid zone are going to be.”

“In many cases, it's a group effort, talking with the quest team, and our storyline gurus. We're working out the overall direction of the plot.”

“And then a lot of it just comes down to what sounds cool to us. A huge firehawk that bursts out of a volcano. That sounds kind of cool. Huge magma giants. A spider that lives in a forest where the webs it weaves are made of pure fire. That's pretty cool. “

“We have those basic concepts, and then we see what we're excited with and what we're going to run with.”

“The next step is working out what the specific encounter mechanics are going to be like. Again that's a product of all our creativity and all of our shared experience as designers and as players.”

“And again, what would look cool, and what we think would be fun to actually play through.”

“Once we settle on what the overall fight is going to look like, we assign it to a single encounter designer who takes primary responsibility for implementing the mechanics and implementing a fight.”

“Then we jump into lots and lots of playtesting. And that's the answer to how we make it fun. Everything we make we playtest extensively internally. We get a raid group together with other employees, play through the fight.”

“Then we put our fight on our public testing realm and get feedback from raiders of all levels, and make lots and lots of adjustments.”

And Ian says that while World of Warcraft might not be perfect, they’re constantly trying to get it as close as possible.

“It's a living game. Perfection is something we'll never reach but one of the great things about working on a live game like this is that we can constantly fix our mistakes.“

“Some things aren't perfectly tuned, some things are inevitably not as fun and aren't the optimal solution that we could've come up with. But we're listening to feedback, we're listening to our players, and we'll be playing the game as much as anyone next week and learning from whatever mistakes we've made.”

A screenshot of from Mists of Pandaria. Picture: Courtesy of BlizzardSource: Supplied

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria is available now for Macintosh and PC.

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